“Anybody been here to see me to-day, Plato?” The old negro shook his head. “No, suh. Mist’ Wilyum Carter, he came in to see Miss Jinny, but he’s gone ’bout two hours ago.” A strange expression flitted across the colonel’s face, but he did not show it to his faithful factotum. “Serve dinner on time, Plato,” he said gravely. “I don’t expect company--lunched in town with Judge Jessup and Mr. Payson.” “Yessuh, so Miss Jinny tole me. Great trial, suh! Mirandy, Miz Carter’s collud girl, she ’phoned me ’bout it. She say she got so excited she went out in de yard an’ killed the wrong hen fo’ dinner. She killed de bes’ layer dey got, an’ Mist’ Carter he mos’ throw a fit. She say he’s gwine to make Mist’ Wilyum git a divorcement----” “Plato,” bellowed the colonel, “how often have I got to tell you to stop gossiping? You quit it and get my dinner ready, or I’ll kill you instead of Mrs. Carter’s hen! Hear me?” Plato giggled disgracefully, but he retired toward the dining-room door. “Colonel Colfax he used to say----” “Shut up!” shouted Colonel Denbigh, making for the stairs. Plato withdrew slowly, still mumbling, and the colonel went up to Virginia’s room. He hesitated an instant, and then he knocked at the door. “Got a bad headache, Jinny?” She answered without opening the door. “Very bad, grandpa. Don’t wait dinner--I don’t want any.” “I’ll ’phone for Dr. Barbour,” he suggested anxiously. “How about it, Jinny?” “No, no! It’s just a little headache from the sun. Any news, grandpa?” The colonel, outside the closed door, stood with his hand at his chin, thinking. “Not much, Jinny. I ’phoned everything I could, didn’t I? Dan made a great figure at the trial, and Leigh’s home now--I reckon Mrs. Carter’s got him packed in cotton-batting by this time. There’s one thing--I saw myself----” He hesitated, listening, but there was no interrogation from the other side of the door. “I saw William Carter ignore his wife in open court--after the verdict. It--well, Jinny, it stuck in my throat.” There was a significant silence. He heard the slight stir of some one in the room; he thought that Virginia had been lying down and had suddenly sat up. “I don’t think it was just right,” she said at last, in a faint voice. “He was here this afternoon, and he told me--he says she’s left him for good.” The colonel, outside the door, gritted his teeth a moment in silence, very red in the face. “The lummox!” he muttered under his breath at last. “What did you say, grandpa?” “I didn’t say anything, Jinny. I only thought something. I thought something not quite polite.” “Oh!” Again he heard the faint stir of her movements on the other side of the door. “The girl looked like death,” he said bluntly. “She’d been through a terrible ordeal. It--I tell you what, Jinny, it looked darned cowardly!”